David Lubars to receive the Lion of St. Mark at Cannes

A quarter-century after his groundbreaking “BMW Films” project confounded Cannes Lions organizers, leading to the creation of the Titanium Lions for category-defying work, David Lubars is set to be honored with the festival’s highest honor for lifetime achievement. Lubars, who retired from advertising last year after a sterling career that included pioneering interactive work at Fallon and two decades at the creative helm of BBDO Worldwide, will receive the Lion of St. Mark at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June. Along with BMW Films, created at Fallon, Lubars is known for steering breakthrough BBDO campaigns including HBO’s “Voyeur,” Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry,” Sandy Hook Promise’s “Know the Signs” and many more. Known as a master of simplicity and decisiveness—in the work, and in how he ran his creative departments—Lubars was acclaimed throughout his career for always getting the best out of his teams and for an uncanny ability to quickly spot winning ideas and help bring them to life in their most compelling iterations. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here Famously reticent—preferring to let his work do the talking—Lubars told Ad Age that he was “humbled” by news of the award, even if it will surely feel a little awkward to get on stage in France and acknowledge the greatness of his own career. “My whole thing is—I’ve said this before—I want people to say, ‘I don’t know too much about the guy, but he had some good work. And he wasn’t an asshole,‘” Lubars said. “He has shaped the industry landscape, and his visionary creativity has resulted in some of the world’s most impactful and compelling work,” Simon Cook, CEO of Lions, said of Lubars, a five-time Cannes jury president. “We’re delighted to be recognizing David’s expansive body of work and significant contribution to the industry at Cannes Lions this year.” Looking back at his career, Lubars said great brands and companies “possess a certain kind of magic, but one not always expressed. The goal for me was to surface that magic, mine it, turn it into something tangible a client could grab onto and run with around the world.” Creatives do that, he added, by “injecting effervescent creative air into the culture rather than mediocre media pollution. You surprise people, you delight people; they fall in love. It’s that simple and that challenging. It’s the thing the fantastic clients and agency partners I worked with for 43 years were always chasing. And it’s why Cannes is Cannes.” Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Lubars was global chief creative officer at BBDO from 2004 until 2024, following six years at Fallon. Prior to that, he worked at BBDO West, Leonard Monahan Saabye (later Leonard Monahan Lubars) and Chiat/Day. This year’s Cannes Lions will run June 16-20 in Cannes, France. Lubars will speak on stage at the Lion of St. Mark seminar on June 20, followed by the presentation of the honor at the award show that evening. Since 2011, when the award was launched, 15 execs have been honored with the Lions of St. Mark. The full list of prior winners is below. 2011: John Hegarty 2012: Dan Wieden 2013: Lee Clow 2014: Joe Pytka 2015: Bob Greenberg 2016: Marcello Serpa 2017: David Droga 2018: Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Pandey 2019: Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein 2020: Mary Wells Lawrence 2022: Colleen DeCourcy 2023: Jacques Séguéla 2024: Susan Hoffman

David Lubars to receive the Lion of St. Mark at Cannes

Featured Stories